Its fall, its fall, my favorite time of the year! Fall, when the leaves turn pretty colors, hoodies are appropriate apparel, and Thanksgiving is close by. Apple cider, wassail, pie, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole. Leaves crunching under foot, the smell of fireplaces being used, the crisp air...as well as change!
Aurella is on the cusp of crawling. She pushes herself up to her hands and knees and then rocks, or does 'downward dog' on her feet, or flips over onto her back. People have exclaimed, "oh, she'll be crawling any day now!" for weeks. She is taking her sweet time but my tender mama heart just whispers, "Take your time, sweet one". Her rate of growth is far too rapid for my liking.
A couple of weeks ago, I had to pull out her 6 to 9 month clothing (thank you Jackie Manning!!!) and start putting her 3 to 6 month clothes away. (Didn't I just start using those??) There was a problem though; I couldn't find those clothes anywhere. I'm talking search the storage room, loft and all the closets - yes, even our sixth-sense-movie closet - and even the trunks of our cars, just in case we had gotten so used to seeing boxes that we no longer registered them. I had just about given up on them when Todd decided to check the storage room again and found them in a place I truly thought I had investigated already. Oh well - hallelujah! We celebrated that night by taking all the clothes out of the boxes, sorting through them and stocking Aurella's drawers. Fun for me - such cute clothes!!! - but maybe not so fun for Todd. What a good sport!
Another huge change our family has undergone is that I work now in the mornings at Brigham Larson Pianos in Orem. I work in the Utah Music Conservatory side as the Program Director for their Kindermusik program. I have fallen in love! Working with kids exploring music and dance, movement, music theory concepts, toys, games...SINGING...yep this job is just the best. I'm still completing my training as a certified Kindermusik instructor but I've already started teaching some classes. I also take Aurella to the Cuddle & Bounce class on my day off, Friday mornings. It's SO MUCH FUN to be with her as she responds to the music, the bouncing, dancing, toys, other babies etc. It's perfect for her and she loves it. If you're curious to see what Kindersmusik is about, go here.
Ok enough about boring work stuff, here are the pics!!
This onesie speaks truth
We really tried to get her to take a bottle, and she would sometimes...but it's really just not her thing *sigh*
Behold...the downward baby dog yoga pose.
She does this a lot...
Exhausted after her first day of Kindermusik.
Kindermusik with her friends Calvin and Lydia!
Gammy and aunts helped her to sit up! So exciting!
She only likes to sit up in her bouncy seat now
...and eat everything.
Todd is hilarious
Calvin just keeps getting bigger!
Photo day!
We love it when Aurella gets social time with friends and family
Well it's September 8th but I'm still going to just quickly post Aurella's pictures from the last month. Her 3rd month has been so fun! She's such a happy baby and it's so incredible seeing her grow.
She's getting old...
ALWAYS happy in the morning
I've tried to get pictures of Aurella wearing each of her new headbands that Gammy and I made for her. I didn't get all of them, but maybe I will by next month!
Look at those feet!!
So, remember how Aurella was going to sleep on her own and awesome stuff? I guess the four-month regression hit and now it's a good day if she gets more than 40 minutes in for a nap. Instead of waking up once in the night to eat and sleeping the rest of the time until 7, if she wakes herself up she'll make sure we know she needs us in order to go back to sleep! This will happen four or five times a night, sometimes more and we sure are hoping it's temporary.
Back in her easier sleeping days, she would talk herself to sleep. We'd put her down and she'd just babble until her eyes would close. Pretty magical stuff I tell you, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again!
With the summer wrapping up, my sister and her husband came back to Utah from Washington! They came over with my niece Marci, who's 7 months old, and the two cousins were able to play a little. So much fun!
Milestones Aurella has reached so far:
She rolled from her back to her stomach!!
And she's learned to suck her thumb, although she just gnaws on it now.
In other updates, I decided to take a risk with my hair and dye it! I haven't dyed it since my junior year of high school.
Todd just got a new calling on Sunday to be the Assistant Ward Clerk and he's pretty excited. He has already started on training. I wonder how much of him I'll get on Sundays now! I was called about a month ago to be the Mia Maids Adviser in the Young Women's program in our ward. I really enjoy being with the Young Women. Aurella joins me most of the time during Young Women's. She's getting a head start!
Aurella had her first camping trip over the weekend! I really wish I would have thought to take pictures, but we were camping and I guess my mind wasn't focused on anything technology related. We went with our ward and had so much fun and made a few new friends as well. I got bit by mosquitoes and small horseflies. I think I counted bites up into the 30s before someone offered me bug spray. Why don't I think of these things! Haha oh well. It was an experience. I'm so glad neither Todd or Aurella got bit by anything.
Photo day!
We love it when Aurella gets social time with friends and family
